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The Effective Use of Comedy and Music to Teach Ethical Living

Wouldn’t that be ideal, If we could all learn how to live more virtuous, holy lives by listening to good music and laughing?

Well…wonderful news! We are getting closer and closer to such an ideal form of education, and just the other night on Saturday Night Live, Justin Timberlake tapped into the incredible potential of music and comedy:

Many musicians promote wholesome messages in their lyrics, yet sometimes the tune is just so darn catchy that we forget to think about the meaning of the lyrics and the message that inspired the amazing sound in the first place. Take the time to consider the meaning of the lyrics to almost any song, though, and you’ll likely find a depth of intellectual and/or spiritual insight that you’ve glazed over 100 times before while enraptured so much by the tune that you forget the artist is singing in a language that you know, understand, and can think about.

Thinking, of course, can be incredibly scary. Not even scientists know the potential of the human brain, so when we actually decide to use that three pound organ inside our skull, there’s no telling what we might get out of it. Sometimes we can let people make decisions for us instead of using our own ability to think and reason, yet really – our ability to think is perhaps one of the greatest gifts given to all of us. Why not use it?

Listen to Justin Timberlake, smile, laugh, enjoy, and then allow yourself to ponder the meaning behind his message. It might sound something like Reverence for Life.